There was no furnace in the kitchen of the old log cabin.

Instead, there was a fireplace in the living room.

The fireplace in the corner was in a messy state, with dust, cobwebs, and herbs neglected due to not being used for a long time.

[The wind is getting stronger. It would be good to clean it in advance.]

Ren had discovered the fireplace belatedly, but unable to touch it without Sharti’s permission, he had just tidied up around it whenever he could.

[… She doesn’t even look towards the fireplace. It must be colder in the mountains, so why doesn’t she use it?]

However, contrary to Ren’s expectations, even on windy days and rainy nights, Sharti ignored the existence of the fireplace.

Just as Ren was about to ask Sharti the reason, he suddenly realized.

[Is it because there’s no firewood to burn?]

How easy would it be for a woman alone to chop firewood?

Moreover, because the entire log cabin was old, it would be dangerous if sparks flew out incorrectly.

[So she gave up and lived like this.]

From what Ren had observed so far, Sharti seemed to have a tendency to endure and persevere if there wasn’t much inconvenience in her life.

She had few household items, and herbs occupied most of her life. The wardrobe was mostly robes, and the small dressing table only had household items like sewing tools and scissors.

Sharti showed no signs of material desire.

[If only there were tools, she could chop firewood.]

Being on the mountainside, there were trees all around the log cabin, so what was needed was an axe.

And Ren finally managed to get an axe through Bireta.

As soon as he grasped the axe, Ren was convinced of his assumption. It was too heavy and dangerous a tool for Sharti with her slender wrists to handle.

[But how do you light a fire?]

His broken mind couldn’t remember how to light a fire.

Ren clicked his tongue in the hole of his sketchy memory.

He was certainly not a slave, Ren added to his conviction in his own assumption.

[If you don’t know, you just have to try.]

So as not to worry Sharti unnecessarily, and knowing her personality might make her decline, Ren worked hard chopping firewood while Sharti was bedridden.

Sharti falling ill with a cold gave him even more motivation.

He wanted to let her rest in a warm room as soon as possible.

Perhaps his enthusiasm was too much, as the axe handle that had barely been swung a few times broke so feebly.

[Is this enough?]

Ren lightly dusted off his hands while checking the pile of firewood stacked behind the log cabin.

After that, Ren practiced lighting fires diligently, hiding from Sharti’s eyes.

Fortunately, Ren, relying on the hand sensation his body remembered, barely managed to succeed in producing smoke.

[Now I should clean the fireplace.]

There was no need to postpone it any longer.

Sharti’s mood had improved with the flower he had accidentally discovered, and Ren had just become honest at the crossroads of choice.

He wanted to show his usefulness to Sharti and be seen as a being she could rely on, not just out of sympathy.

Only then could he reveal his choice to her.

[Hmm, it would be better to make it look natural.]

Ren quickly cleaned the fireplace after Sharti went into the herb room.

It seemed better for her to naturally feel the warmth in the house rather than blatantly lighting the fire in front of Sharti’s eyes.

Ren didn’t want to appear as if he was boasting or showing off his concern and care for her.

He just hoped Sharti would naturally recognize his kindness.

And finally, when Sharti came out to the living room, Ren expected.

He waited for Sharti’s reaction of joy at receiving an unexpected gift, just like when he had given her the flower.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhh−!!!!!!”

However, the moment Sharti screamed, Ren realized how arrogant and terribly wrong his decision had been.

Sharti’s shortly trimmed nails dug into Ren’s forearm.

Despite the pain of her nails scraping his skin, Ren didn’t loosen his arms wrapped around Sharti.

“Please, please, aaah…! Save, save me… Huk, no…!”

“−Sha! Come to your senses, Sha!”

No matter how strongly Ren embraced her, Sharti’s body trembled uncontrollably.

Lying face down and wailing, Sharti was in a state where she couldn’t even recognize his presence beside her.

Ren desperately held onto her, with no time to be bewildered by Sharti’s extremely changed appearance.

“Sha! Look at me! Sha!!”

The small and frail body didn’t budge as if it had turned to stone.

Ren applied force to his hands and lifted Sharti up.

With that momentum, Sharti’s hood slipped off.

“Save me, save me… Fire, fire…!!”

Her vermilion eyes, resembling the summer sunset, were blurred with tears, having lost their focus.

Her pale face was becoming completely wet with tears.

“…Sha−. Please, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Ren hurriedly embraced Sharti.

Holding Sharti’s face to his chest, Ren strongly wrapped her back.

He didn’t want to see her face like this.

She wouldn’t want to show such a face.

“The fire keeps, growing… Please, me… Heu, save me…”

“It’s okay. I’m here. I, I was wrong. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Please, it’s okay, because I’m by your side.”

Ren whispered continuously into her ear with a distorted face.

He kept making his presence known until her trembling subsided.

Her hand, begging to be saved, grasped Ren’s clothes with strong force.

“…Heu, I, I… don’t want to die…”

Perhaps feeling the strength strongly supporting her body, Sharti’s voice gradually became quieter.

And soon, as if a thread had been cut, Sharti’s body crumbled in his arms.

“…Sha!”

Ren hurriedly checked her breathing first.

Ren let out a sigh of relief at the sound of Sharti’s small, wheezing breaths. His startled heart was beating rapidly.

Ren first put her hood back on, then carried her in his arms and strode towards the bedroom.

He tried to lay Sharti on the bed, but it wasn’t easy because Sharti was strongly grasping his clothes.

“…”

Ren quietly looked down at Sharti’s small hand that wouldn’t let go of his clothes.

Being held back as if telling him not to go made a corner of his heart ache and then tremble.

His cyan eyes were distorted with pain and regret.

“…I’m sorry, Sha.”

Ren painfully detached Sharti’s hand that was desperately clinging to him, then left the bedroom and hurriedly extinguished the fire in the fireplace.

The air that had been warm at first was now filled with an uncomfortable heat.

Ren looked down at the blackened, burnt firewood and fell into thought.

‘…Damn it.’

Ren roughly rubbed his face with both hands.

The curse that had risen up his throat lingered in his mouth.

Sharti hadn’t not lit the fire, she couldn’t.

‘There were other things to assume. What do I know about Sha.’

The image of Sharti wailing and having a fit at the sight of the fireplace fire kept flickering in his mind.

Ren’s face, blaming himself, became rigid.

He felt indescribable self-loathing for his foolish and stupid self.

‘…Repaying kindness with enmity.’

Ren lowered his gaze while staring at the cooling fireplace.

Not only had he intruded into Sharti’s peaceful life, but he had also stirred up her trauma with his selfishness.

Ren despised himself.

“The worst.”

Standing still with his head tilted, looking up at the ceiling, Ren ruminated on his mistake.

As his mind became calmer, Ren headed to the bathroom.

For now, taking care of Sharti was more important than reflection.

“Sha…”

Ren, who had made a wet cloth, approached Sharti who was groaning softly.

Sharti was having small convulsions as if she was even having nightmares.

Ren wiped the sweat from her nape with the wet cloth and carefully massaged her arms and legs.

“…I’m sorry.”

Feeling a tightening pain in his solar plexus, Ren made a decision once again.

It was right to leave Sharti.

It was a selfish desire for him, who couldn’t do anything properly, to be by Sharti’s side.

Ren, who had powerlessly realized his limits, lightly grasped Sharti’s hand and then let go.

“I’m sorry for hurting you, Sha.”

Ren swallowed and swallowed again the anger and regret that welled up in his throat.

The darkly sunken and mixed emotions soon became sadness.

That night, Ren quietly and lengthily suffered in his sadness.

Now there was only one day left that he could be by Sharti’s side.

However, it was far too little time to erase the selfish desire of not wanting to leave.

[This is the timeline separator]

The next day, Ren stared at Sharti’s back with a dispirited face.

Sharti, who had woken up only in the late morning when clouds covered the sun, had been dealing with accumulated work since leaving the bedroom, skipping meals.

She looked fine on the outside. There was no trace of the appearance from yesterday evening when she had been having a fit.

However, Ren felt a chill in his heart rather than relief.

“…Sha.”

“…”

Even when Ren called her, even when he approached, Sharti didn’t give him a single glance.

She was thoroughly ignoring and disregarding him.

“Sha−.”

When Ren, unable to bear it anymore, blocked her way, Sharti immediately turned her body and moved in the opposite direction.

By this point, even Ren felt heat rising from frustration.

Ren, who had guarded the door of her bedroom all night with a face stiff from tension, hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.

He had thought through the night with open eyes. That when Sharti woke up, he would apologize first, explain about the fireplace, and then say he would leave, that he was sorry.

However, Sharti chose avoidance.

“Sha, I have something to talk about for a moment.”

Unable to grab her forcefully, a voice distorted with surging emotions and anxiety flowed out.

“…Yesterday evening, I−.”

“…!”

Sharti, who had been fleeing as if she had no intention of talking with Ren, stumbled as her feet got tangled.

It was the moment Ren quickly reached out his hand and grabbed her arm.

Tak−! Sharti reflexively shook off his hand.

“…”

Ren, his expression disappearing, stared at the rejected hand and slowly clenched it.

A heavy silence briefly passed between the two people.

Without even glancing at Ren, Sharti quickly entered the bedroom.

Ren, left alone, gritted his teeth.

‘What should I do in this situation?’

Ren swept his eyes with one hand while trying to calm his boiling inside filled with frustration.

It wasn’t right to pretend to be hurt or pitiful when he had done something wrong.

‘She probably wants to pretend it never happened.’

He wasn’t unaware of Sharti’s feelings.

She wanted to treat someone’s mistake, trauma, everything as if it had never happened.

So he too should cover up yesterday’s incident and go on.

‘…Because only one day is left.’

It wasn’t a difficult thing.

Suddenly frowning, Ren let out a snicker.

Nothing that wasn’t difficult applied only to Sharti.

“Even in this situation, I’m looking for excuses.”

Mocking his cowardly inner thoughts that were only looking for a chance to reverse his decision, Ren left his place.

Ren, who had entered the room, lay down on the blanket and supported his head with both hands.

‘Now I really need to worry about my future.’

Bireta seemed to dislike him. Ren had a strong certainty that he would have to be self-sufficient from the moment he followed Bireta.

But he didn’t feel much motivation to make plans for the future.

Just then, as he was ruminating on complex and uncomfortable emotions while staring at the ceiling.

“…!”

Ren abruptly got up at the sound of small footsteps outside. It was clearly the sound of footsteps that had come close to the door and then disappeared.

When Ren hurriedly went outside, he found clothes placed in front of the utility room door.

It was the clothes Sharti had been making.

“…”

His expression automatically hardened at the neatly folded clothes without even a note.

Ren had thought that Sharti would at least give him the clothes tomorrow.

He thought she would hand them over for him to wear before leaving.

‘Is this how it ends?’

Could it be that she wanted him to leave right now?

Ren’s face hardened at the suddenly emerging assumption.

“Sha!”

He couldn’t leave like this without saying a word to Sharti.

He didn’t want to leave without apologizing, after hurting her.

Ren moved quickly and flung open the bedroom door.

“…!”

Sharti, startled and frozen, was looking at him with her body shrunk.

It was when Ren was about to step into the bedroom, trying hard to calm his crumbling expression.

Thump thump! Thump!

“…!”

“…”

Both Sharti and Ren held their breath as they were.

Someone was knocking on the log cabin door.

As they were staring at the door, stiffened, a husky voice rang out from outside.

“Ah! Miss! It’s me! The general store! Are you home?”